Jason Calaway
Arguably the biggest star in the new millennium, Jason "Element X" Calaway has revolutionized the industry of pro-wrestling. He helped build three separate promotions and has taken them all to the top of the ratings for at least one week, and draws thousands of fans to arenas throughout the world today. He is a former TWW Heavyweight Champion, XWF Heavyweight Champion, TCW Heavyweight Champion, UBW Heavyweight Champion, UBW Tag-Team Champion, Two Time WWT World Heavyweight Champion, WWT Midway/Absolute Champion, WWT Tag-Team Champion, and WWT Television Champion. He was also the second man to be a WWT Triple Champion. Early Life Born Jason Markus Calaway on January 22nd, 1982 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jason was born into the business of pro wrestling. His father, Mark, was none other than the legendary Undertaker in WWF/WWE. Jason, and later his brothers Chad and Marshall, often hit the road with their father and spent time in the locker room with other mega stars of the WWF/WWE. Jason was determined to make his father proud, and live up to his legacy as a Calaway. The young Jason was trained early on by his father, and his godfathers Brett and Owen Hart. Eventually, his desire to make his father proud and live up to his legacy vanished, and was replaced by a desire to surpass his father anyway he could. At the age of 18, Jason signed onto an Indy promotion in Philadelphia, and immediately began making a name for himself. Career in TNA and Terror World Wrestling (2006 - 2009) After making a name for himself on the Indy scene, Jason was signed to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) in early 2006, and at first seemed poised to take the company by storm, even winning the X-Division title and holding it for 6 months. Jim Cornett wanted to give Jason a World title push, and so put him in a feud against then champion Christian Cage. However, shortly after this, TNA signed Kurt Angle, who demanded a title match himself. TNA had Angle squash Jason in a #1 contender's match in less than a minute with a ref that was paid off, and had Angle feud with Christian instead. This led to Jason storming into Cornett's office and demanding a rematch. Cornett said there was nothing he could do, but he promised Jason would get his shot soon enough. So Jason waited, but was resentful to Angle from there on out. After Angle pulled a prank on Jason in mid-2007, Jason snapped and punched Angle in the jaw. Both Angle and Jason were suspended for the incident. Angle then went to management and claimed that Jason had slept with Angle's then wife Karen, and said that TNA had to either fire Jason or he (Angle) would quit. Jason was then released by TNA in August 2007. Jason then got a try out with WWE, but both Vince McMahon and Triple H felt he didn't have the look to be a star, and so didn't sign him. Jason briefly competed with ROH, but by then was having problems with drugs and after a failed test was let go by ROH as well. Jason developed a reputation from this incident, and it was fueled by Kurt Angle, who claimed Jason had been a junky in TNA as well. Because of this, Jason couldn't find work, despite his ungodly talent. He was stuck competing in the only places that would hire him: Hardcore promotions. This only furthered Jason's descent into darkness, as he OD'd three times in 2008. Finally in July, Jason was approached by Matt Gargan and Mike Booker. At the lunch meeting, Booker made it obvious that he wanted no part of Jason being in the company, but Gargan said that he saw something in the former phenom. Booker said that he wanted to see what Jason could do, to see if he was worth it. Gargan agreed. So Jason fought TWW's prized commodity at that point, Mike Manseau. Jason fought Mike for nearly ten minutes before defeating him after a chair shot to the skull. This impressed both Gargan and Booker enough to sign him on the spot, but just as they made him the offer, already signed Ryan Hassan stepped up and told them that he didn't want another junky, and that beating Mike wasn't even to warrant a contract. Hassan then handed his bag to Booker and told him that he'd find out himself how good this guy was. Jason already decided on the spot that he hated Ryan, and was looking forward to opportunity to knock the kid down a peg. However, Ryan dominated Jason, who had grown soft fighting in hardcore matches for a year, and battling a drug addiction, and lost to Ryan in less than 90 seconds via submission while Ryan was only wearing street clothes. Ryan got up, saying "I thought so." Booker then tore up the contract. Enraged, Jason turned Ryan around and began a brawl that lasted 20 minutes before the rest of the roster puller the two apart. Having fought Ryan to a draw, Gargan (chuckling) gave Jason a contract and said "You are the missing element that will lead this company to the top." The brawl had also caused Ryan and Jason to have an enormous amount of respect for each other's skills. TWW gave Jason some direction he severely needed at the time. He was able to exercise his demons, which proved to be enough as he stopped using drugs shortly after signing on. What Gargan said to him stuck, and as a result Jason started competing under the name of "Element X". X soon rose straight to the top of TWW, winning their world title, and always staying in the main event scene. But while TWW was what Jason needed in 2008, by 2009 he was feeling restless with merely being a hardcore wrestler, and started putting feelers out to other wrestling companies such as New Japan Pro Wrestling. However, before he started job hunting in earnest, TWW folded. Co-Founders Mike Booker and Matt Gargan had a split, and Booker sued Gargan and TWW, causing both to go bankrupt. Just when it looked like all of TWW would be joining Jason in the job hunt, the entire roster was called in by Matt Gargan. Everyone expected this to be where Gargan told them it was all over. To the astonishment of Jason and everyone else, Gargan was standing along side none other than Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, who was announcing his acquisition of the company, and its rebranding to World Wrestling Tensions. The Face of WWT (March 2009 - August 2009) The folding of TWW to become WWT was a sign to Jason that it was time to move on. However, he was convinced by Johnson to stay, because Johnson wanted Jason to be the face of WWT. Jason decided to stay, but was upset that Johnson had fired Cassius Creed and Super Psycho for "Grandmaster" Lane Dickson and Mark "Wolfpac" Andrews. It was at this point that Jason realized that he had become a hardcore wrestler after all of these years, albeit one with the ability to put on fantastic matches. Before WWT's inaugural Salvation weekly show, Jason was told by Johnson that he would be in the match that would determine the first ever WWT World Heavyweight Champion against Grandmaster Lane. When Jason asked why the new guy was getting the match over Ryan Hassan (now known as Stinger8), Maniacal Murderer, or Mike, Johnson informed him that Lane's uncle was the CEO of Midway Games, WWT's primary sponsor. Because Lane had never had a known match before, Jason couldn't study any film on Lane, and so was a bit nervous heading into their first match on Salvation. That is, until he and Lane competed earlier in the match in a two on one handicap match against Stinger8 to crown the first ever Tag-Team Champions. Jason had to save Lane (who started the match) 5 times in the first 30 seconds. Stinger was alone because his partner, Terrell "The Truth" Tyson had shown up high, and was not allowed to compete. Stinger still had a trick up his sleeve, as at the time Jason was known to have a huge crush on Christy Hemme. Stinger hired Christy to show up to Salvation and seduce Jason. This worked to perfection, as Christy took Jason to the back and Stinger forced Lane to tap out. This cost Jason the tag titles, but he was supremely unconcerned. Not only did he get to hook up with his crush, but he also knew he would get to face Lane for the world title. The match later in the night lasted 45 seconds, and Element X emerged as the first ever WWT World Heavyweight Champion. The first nearly two months of Jason's reign gave him little pride. He constantly faced Lane, and match after match, Jason won before the two minute mark. Finally, after the Blood Flood PPV in August had a terrible number of buys, with the ones that did paying to see Stinger8 vs. Maniacal Murderer for the Midway title, Jason demanded a meeting with Dwayne Johnson and the CEO of Midway. Jason told them that the Midway title was becoming FAR more prestigious than the world title (which the Midway CEO said he was fine with) and that Lane wasn't drawing a dime and was actually costing WWT money. Johnson backed Jason up on this, and after nearly 4 hours of arguing, the Midway CEO conceded that his nephew shouldn't be in the world title scene. Jason wanted to know who his opponent would be, but Johnson wouldn't tell him. So on the next Salvation, Jason beat Lane again, only to have Wolfpac come down to the ring with the newly signed Enforcer, who both proceeded to beat Jason down, and ended the attack by breaking Lane's neck. The attack, while gruesome, was the best thing that could've happened to WWT. What few fans WWT had at the time hated Lane, and the feud that followed between Jason and Pac not only raised WWT's profits by over 500%, but also got WWT a national television deal. For the first time since his days on TNA, Jason was on the national spotlight. Element X became one of the most popular faces in the business, while Wolfpac became the biggest heel. The two and a half months they feuded caused WWT to go from a local phenom in Western New York, to a global heavyweight, duking it out with TNA and knocking at the door of WWE. The feud with Pac came to an end in July, when Jason helped Stinger defeat Pac, leading to the end of Pac's Destruction stable. After defeating Pac, Stinger and Jason held almost all of the titles in WWT. They were the tag-team champions, Stinger was the world champion, and Jason was the Midway Champion. So they hit the bars to celebrate their victories and the end of Destruction. They went out with Jason's girlfriend Destiny Stevens and got heavily intoxicated. Eyewitnesses claimed later that Jason went to the bathroom and vomited for almost twenty minutes, before coming back out and seeing Stinger and Destiny flirting, with Stinger's hand on Destiny's leg. The surveillance cameras caught the next part of the drunken exchange: Jason: "Hey you....fucker! What are you doing with my girl! Stinger: "Just giving her the attention someone as sexy as her deserves! You know what they say: Once you go Arab you.....uh.....I don't.....I don't know.... Jason: "Shit....they DO SAY THAT!!!! I'M GOING TO FUCKIN KILL YOU!!!"'''' Jason and Stinger began a huge brawl that started in the bar and poured into the streets, injuring civilians and damaging property. Both were arrested as a result, and managed to avoid jail, although paying around $50,000 in fines each. The debacle also cost WWT around 5 million dollars in lawsuits. As a result, both Jason and Stinger were stripped of all of their titles and suspended indefinitely, although this only lasted about a week. This episode would subsequently change the course of WWT history as a result, as Mark "The Undertaker" Calaway determined that this meant that Jason had fallen off the wagon yet again, and this time he wasn't going to let his son get away with ruining the Calaway name. Jason proceeded to win the WWT World Heavyweight Championship yet again, but after his victory, the lights throughout the arena went out and when they turned on, the Undertaker was behind him, who laid Jason out with a chokeslam. In the subsequent weeks, it was revealed that not only was Element X the Undertaker's son, but D3m3nt3d F0x was as well. This led to the biggest feud in WWT history at the time, with Jason squaring off against his brother and father. Adding to the chaos was the fact that a demon from Jason's past, Kurt Angle, had just been hired as the GM of WWT. At first, Kurt seemed to want to work with Jason and put their past behind them, and Jason wanted the same. However, as Jason grew more and more agitated from the feud with his family, he took out his frustrations on Angle, who in turn plotted for a way to get Jason out of his life once again. Agony 2009, Departure from WWT, and Joining UBW (August 2009 - September 2009) Angle's disgust with the Calaway feud became more and more apparent each week on Salvation. The Salvation before August's Agony PPV, Angle held a 20 man battle royal to crown a second Money in the bank briefcase winner, despite the fact D3m3n3t3d F0x had just won and cashed his in about 2 weeks before. The winner was Wolfpac. Angle then announced that at Agony, there would be a 3 Stages of Hell match between Element X and D3m3nt3d F0x, and whatever Calaway lost at Agony would be fired. At Agony, the two had a match that would go down as one of the most legendary bouts in the history of pro-wrestling. Jason won, and Chad was fired. However, Save Me by Burn Halo began to play, and Wolfpac came down to the ring with his briefcase. He cashed it in, dodged a kick from Jason, and nailed him with a WPA on the briefcase to become WWT World Heavyweight Champion once again. Jason, barely conscious and having no clue what was going on, vaguely heard Angle's music hit. Angle then uttered the words that would change the wrestling industry forever: "Element X, you won the Three Stages of Hell match! Congratulations! D3m3n3t3d F0x....YOU'RE ASS IS FIRED! But here's the thing Jason, your contract stipulated that if you lost at Agony, you would be fired. Well guess what? Its STILL Agony, and your ass just lost to Pac! So Element X....YOU'RE FIIIIRRRRRRED!!!!!!" Jason attempted to sue WWT for a breach of contract, but Angle was right. Jason then went to Midway to ask them to just hire him back, but they refused since it would make them look bad to disregard what everyone saw at a live PPV. Jason, devastated, nearly decided to retire from pro wrestling altogether, when a call from Pall Heyman changed everything. Heyman was starting up Ultimate Battleground Wrestling (or UBW) after having failed to get the job of CEO at WWT (the position went to Eric Bischoff instead). Heyman had already hired a WWT jobber in Rico Contreras, and announced he would sign the loser of the Calaway match at Agony. After Jason was fired, Heyman contacted his agent, and within 36 hours had signed Jason to the most lucrative deal in UBW or WWT history at the time (3 years, $5 million). At a press conference the next day, Paul Heyman promised to put WWT out of business, saying that they didn't deserve to stay around for the way they treated two of their biggest stars. A vindictive Jason then stepped up to the podium and stated: "The first shots of the war have been fired, and nobody from UBW was hit." Leading UBW (September 2009 - March 2010) Upon arriving in UBW, it was widely expected the Jason (who was finally wrestling under his real name) would have a rematch against his brother Chad to crown the first UBW Heavyweight Champion. A tournament was held, in which Jason breezed through. However, Chad was eliminated in the semi-finals by Rico Contreras, to the disappointment of the fans. Most figured that Rico would be no match for Jason, and that their match would amount to little more than a squash. To the astonishment of everyone (especially Jason), Rico beat Jason and became the first ever UBW Heavyweight Champion. Instead of leading UBW as its champion, Jason found himself locked in a feud with a man who would become arguably his arch-nemesis: Scott Hart. Jason went to war with Hart, having a numerous matches, nearly all of which were rated 4 stars or higher. After the feud with Hart died down, Jason turned his sights back on Rico and the UBW Heavyweight Championship, which he won at Winter Warfare. Jason winning the title marked the peak for UBW. They were beating WWT in the ratings, and WWT had seemingly no response. The moment was meant to last, as UBW began to lose in the war. While UBW was slowly losing the war to WWT, Jason reigned as one of its few bright spots. After defeating Rico at the January PPV, Jason began feuding with Hassan (Stinger's older brother who had jumped to UBW months earlier). This feud is widely regarded as the only reason UBW stayed alive as long as it did, as the entire show got virtually no ratings until Hassan and Jason came on the air. The feud culminated at Valentine's Day Massacre, which saw Hassan defeat Jason for the title. During the match, Jason was injured after a ring rope snapped after he had been whipped into it by Hassan. Jason fell over the ropes expectantly, as a result and sprained his knee. He finished the match but was in obvious pain. After getting looked at by the doctors, Jason was out for a month. This was crippling news for UBW, who could not afford it. By the time Jason returned, it was too late. Heyman had been boxed into a corner. UBW was broke and only had one investor remaining (Ted Turner), and so it would have to either declare bankruptcy or find other investors. However, at the last second, WWT made Heyman an offer he couldn't refuse: An 8 on 8 elimination chamber tag match between UBW and WWT. The winner would stay in business and acquire all the talent from the other, while the other would cease operations immediately. Heyman accepted and the match was on. WWT dominated UBW throughout the match, and soon it was WWT's Stinger8, Wolfpac, Truth, Tank, Enforcer, and Super Psycho against UBW's Jason Calaway and Rico Contreras. Jason would later acknowledge that he and Rico looked at each other and realized that all hope was lost for UBW, but they decided to fight anyway. The two managed to eliminate Tank, Enforcer, and Super Psycho before Wolfpac eliminated Rico, leaving Jason to fend for himself against the three most talented men in WWT. Jason, disgusted that the company that screwed him over was going to triumph, and that Kurt Angle was going to get away with costing him everything AGAIN, went into a psychotic rage. He was nearly unstoppable and quickly eliminated Truth and Pac. It was then down to just Jason and Stinger, just like in Jason's tryout all that time ago, and for a brief moment, Jason thought there was a chance. The two fought for over 15 minutes, before Stinger ducked a clothesline, kicked Jason's knees out, and locked in his Dragon Sleeper. Jason held on as long as possible before tapping, and as he did so, part of him died. Hiatus, TCW, and Hiatus Again (March 2010 - July 2012) After the fall of UBW, WWT CEO Eric Bischoff fired the entire UBW roster, as well as over half of his own, and moved WWT to a new network. After touring the Indy scene for a bit, Jason suffered a devastating neck injury that nearly forced him into retirement. In fact, for nearly a year while he rehabbed, he WAS retired. In May 2011, Jason decided to make a return to pro wrestling. However, his options were limited, as WWT had just gone on hiatus. Complicating matters was the fact that Kurt Angle was still in TNA, and so they would not hire him. He also knew that WWE would merely want to bury him if he went there. It was then that he realized what he could do. Nearly all of the UBW and WWT roster were still unemployed. With so much talent available, why not start a new company? Jason managed to pull together a group of investors and started Triple Crown Wrestling. Officially, Jason had no power within the company and was just a wrestler, but given that he was the reason for the formation, most of the staff felt obligated to appease him, which led to complications down the road. TCW quickly signed virtually every wrestler from WWT and UBW, and overnight went from non-existent to a national powerhouse. However, after being at war with each other for so long, many of the UBW and WWT guys hated each other, and many refused to work with each other. Furthermore, Stinger8 was displeased by the constant re-booking by the creative team, and felt they were doing whatever Jason told them too. This led to a seismic split in the locker room, with half (mostly former WWT guys) siding with Stinger, and the other half (mostly UBW guys) siding with Jason. In order to smother the flames, management suspended both Stinger and Jason, leading Stinger to quit the company. This led to a talent strike, and soon TCW had to cease operations. Once more out of a job, Jason toured the Indy scene once more, while also working in Japan and Mexico. He seemed quite content to do this until retirement, before getting a call from an old friend... Second stint in UBW (July 2012 - March 2013) In July 2012, Jason received a call from WWT owner and CEO, Ryan "Stinger8" Hassan, inquiring about Jason returning to the company he helped build. Jason, astonished, accepted. After returning and cutting a promo against Stinger, Jason felt alive again. However, Stinger was not pleased about being bashed after bringing Jason back for such a high salary, and the two had a heated verbal exchange after the show. Stinger then did not speak to Jason for the entire week until the next Salvation, when Jason was injured by the current face of WWT Brock. Furious, and sensing a conspiracy against him, Jason quit WWT and reformed UBW. The next 8 months saw WWT and UBW engage in extremely dirty business tactics that would put even their first exchanges to shame. Corporate espionage was rampant, with Chad Calaway spying on WWT for UBW and Truth and UBW GM Kurt Angle spying on UBW for WWT. After 4 PPVs that pit WWT vs. UBW that saw them both split two a piece, the elimination chamber was brought back again. This time, Jason was eliminated midway through by Brian Christophers, and the match saw WWT's Brock pin UBW's Chad Calaway for the win. Once again, UBW died. Return to WWT (June 2013 - Present) After a brief hiatus, Jason reached out to Ryan Hassan and apologized. Hassan accepted and promptly hired Jason back. Jason was placed on the Rush brand and immediately began feuding with Scott Hart, culminating in a 5 star match at Union 2013. Afterwards, Jason began feuding with the dominating stable Throne, and specifically the WWT World Heavyweight Champion Brandon Robertson. The feud got extremely personal, with Robertson brutally beating Jason's youngest brother Marshall while Throne held Jason back. The feud ended at Halloween Havok, in the 2013 Match of the Year that saw Brandon beat Jason cleanly. Jason, realizing that if he didn't act fast, Throne would take over, formed his one stable known as the Syndicate. The Syndicate and Throne have since been feuding back and forth, with complication arising when "The Chosen One" returned to WWT. Both Jason and TC1 have verbally gone back and forth while TC1 was back, until at Hardcore Heaven 2014, Jason pinned TC1 in a threeway match that also included Mark Andrews, and due to the stipulations in the match, seeing that TC1 lost, he was fired afterwards. The next month at Stalemate, Jason Calaway turned on The Syndicate and aligned himself with Mark Andrews after screwing Brian Christophers out of the WWT World Heavyweight Championship. The next night, he cut a promo talking about how he was a turncoat all along, which lead to his brother, Chad Calaway coming out, and since then, the two were engaged in a rivalry. Soon thereafter, Jason captured the WWT Absolute Championship, and at the 5th annual Trial of Champions, Jason and Chad had their first match against one another in nearly five years, with Jason defending his WWT Absolute Championship against Chad, in which Jason retained successfully via submission. After the match, Jason kept in the submission which won him the match, the Indian Deathlock, until a loud pop was heard, and Chad was put on the shelf. The next night on Salvation, Jason was forced to defend his Championship in a gauntlet match, in which he faced Ronnie Franklyn, Mark Ryan, Brad Savage, and Venom, and all of which he defeated, until his other brother, Marshall Calaway made his return and defeated him to capture the WWT Absolute Championship.